Two Buck Yuks: Keith Bergman launches new stand-up comedy series

Three years ago, Keith Bergman performed stand-up during an open mic at The Ground Level, a coffee shop formerly on Central Avenue.

“I almost walked out. I was almost too nervous to get up,” he said. “When I did go up, I felt so good about it, I just kept going back.”

Bergman’s set was mostly puns and one-liners and was in front of “maybe 10 to 15 people.”

Keith Bergman is bringing a weekly stand-up series to The Blarney Event Center. Toledo Free Press photo by Matt Liasse.

“I didn’t dive into anything that was more personal or really all that interesting,” he said.

Bergman had performed stand-up before, but for years he explored other hobbies like theater and music. He thought if he’d ever want to do comedy again, he’d go to The Ground Level, since it was right by his house.

“It was a great open mic. I wish that place was still there,” he said.

The audience’s response motivated him to go back the next week.

“I got a much better reaction than I had any right to,” Bergman said. “What seems to happen to a lot of people, and other people have confirmed this to me since, is people tend to be very sympathetic. When you get introduced and they say it’s your first time up, they all will give you the benefit of the doubt. They’re very encouraging.”

Bergman said the audience’s support for beginners doesn’t last long.

“For the most part, [for] a lot of people, their first set will go really well. Maybe their second set. And then it starts to sink in that they have a long way to go,” Bergman said. “It sort of sank in after a few different tries that it was going to be a really long process. I walked out there the first night thinking I was well on my way to being a real comedian. Three years later I realize I’m still not there yet.”

Bergman said he has bombed a few shows.

“It happens enough to keep you from getting too full of yourself,” Bergman said. “Usually you have no control over what kind of crowd is going to be there. I’ve ended up at shows where everyone there are retired or senior citizens. A lot of the jokes I have, they’re just not interested in what I have to say.”

Bad shows keeps Bergman grounded.

“There’s nothing glamorous about this at all,” he said. “There’s a ton of rejection in comedy. There are people I have been sending emails to for eight months who have never replied. It’s almost like you’re stalking them at some point.”

Bergman has never been booed off stage but said he may prefer it to no reaction at all.

“To get disinterest is almost the worst thing,” Bergman said. “Because then they hear you, they’re listening, they just don’t care what you’re saying.”

Two Buck Yuks

Bergman hopes to keep comedy lovers interested with his new showcase Two Buck Yuks. Comedians will perform stand-up at 8 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning Sept. 4. The shows will be 90 minutes and will take place in The Blarney Event Center in Downtown Toledo. There will be a $2 cover for the shows, which are open to anyone ages 21 and older.

“A lot of people don’t realize there’s a really growing comedy scene in this area and in some of the surrounding cities,” Bergman said.

Two Buck Yuks is already booked until Christmas. Comedians from Illinois and Tennessee are on the schedule already, in addition to ones from Ohio and Michigan.

Bergman used to run a weekly comedy show at Connxtions Comedy Club. Since the venue closed for renovations in the spring, Bergman came up with “Two Buck Yuks” to fill the void.

“I think Downtown needs something like [this]. It’s a good entertainment option,” Bergman said. “Especially midweek, there’s not always stuff to do. It would be nice for people to have another option so they don’t have to drive all the way out to the suburbs.”

Bergman was put in contact with Bill Kline from The Blarney Irish Pub. Kline said it’s the perfect venue because the pub’s event center is a separate room from the bar and dining area.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to host local and regional comedians, to give them a stage and to showcase their talents,” he said in an email. “We were on board from the moment Keith sat down with us and presented his plan, as we understood they had success at their previous venue.”

Bergman said his favorite aspect of comedy is the immediacy. Two Bucks Yuks will be what he loves about comedy and more.

“I think with any creative thing you are doing, it’s nice to see people feel the same way or react the same way,” Bergman said. “I see something [and] I think it’s funny, it’s gratifying to go onstage and have a room full of people also think it’s funny. They see where you’re coming from and they get it.”

‘Hashtag Rustbelt’

The first show will feature a special lineup. Bergman will perform with Stu McCallister from Grand Rapids, Mich., and local comic Mike Szar, two comedians he is making a comedy DVD with. The DVD, “Hashtag Rustbelt,” is expected to be available by Christmas. The three men will tour to promote the DVD, beginning at the show Sept. 4. They will leave directly afterward and drive to Alabama for their next gig.

“It’s been interesting … we’re [doing] a lot of smaller venues, nonconventional comedy venues [and] in places that probably don’t get a lot of comedy,” McCallister said. “It’s a new experience.”

The DVD was filmed in the spring, two weeks before Connxtions Comedy Club closed. It features 10 stand-up acts filmed over two nights. Erik Cribley, D.K. Hamilton, Steve Wherry, Thom Brush, Anthony Martinez, Dustin Meadows and Owen Thomas will also be featured.

DVD recording to feature ten local comedic talents

Like many up-and-coming comedians, Keith Bergman wants to get his name out there to a larger audience. One of the best ways to do that is to have some of your material recorded — a live sample you can sell on video so people can experience your work in the comfort and convenience of their own homes.

“I’ve been doing stand-up for a little over three years now,” Bergman said in an interview with Toledo Free Press Star. “And as I’m moving into more paid shows and things like that, I wanted to get a little more representation — I wanted to get something recorded that I could get out for people. But I’m not at the point where I’m a headlining comic and I could put out an hour-long DVD of my own stuff or anything like that.”

Of course, Bergman isn’t the only comedian with this problem. He knows and works with a lot of comics who are still cutting their teeth in the comedy game.

Bergman

“We’re opening for other people, or we’re doing showcases where we do small sets. But there’s really a big renaissance going on with stand-up, especially in this area. There’s a lot of festivals coming up, there’s a lot of clubs opening up, there’s open mic nights going, and even some of the small towns are having open mic nights and small comedy shows now,” he said.

“So I figured rather than trying to just put out something just by myself, it would be a really good idea to kinda showcase the scene as a whole, and show a lot of the people — give people kind of a sample of a lot of the people who I think are really funny in the area and are kind of making their way into stand-up.”

The end result is “Hashtag Rustbelt,” a show being taped at Connxtions Comedy Club on April 17 and 24. The two shows will feature 10 regional comics showcasing their material — five comics each week — while being recorded for a DVD release this coming summer.

Bergman said the goal is for the comics to promote and help sell the DVD themselves locally, including at their own shows. This will give each comic the chance to show off their own talents while also spotlighting the wide variety of great local comedy.

The first taping on April 17 is scheduled to feature Bergman, Erik Cribley, D.K. Hamilton, Stu McCallister and Steve Wherry. The following week will see performances by Thom Brush, Anthony Martinez, Dustin Meadows, Mike Szar and Owen Thomas.

“Everybody has their own unique style,” Bergman said of the lineup. “I’m 40, I have kids, I’m married. There’s a couple guys who are in their early 20s. Everybody’s got their own different perspective, different style.

“It’s kind of like watching different musicians play. It’s just that everybody has a little different approach. And we really put some time in trying to get a really good mix of people together. So I think there’ll definitely be something for everybody on this.”

Bergman said the DVD will aim to preserve as much as possible of the show.

“We’re going to be doing as little editing as possible, because part of this is, I want this to be as close to a live experience as possible. A lot of times when you see a special on TV, you see something that’s very polished — half an hour of what was at the show didn’t get put in, or someone made a mistake or tripped over a word, it got edited out. Or crowd noise got added in later, things like that. We’re trying to do this as kinda DIY as possible.

“It’s a pretty underground thing. I mean, none of us are full-time comics yet,” he said. “We’re just kinda coming up from the underground of doing this in bars and clubs and coffee shops and stuff. So we kind of want to keep that vibe going on the DVD, make this as close to the real thing as possible.”

The ultimate goal, Bergman said, is to remind local audiences that there are great things happening in comedy in the Glass City and surrounding areas.

“There is more to stand-up comedy than just what people see on television or what’s happening in New York and LA. There’s a lot that’s happening in their own backyard.”